Typically, input materials including bottles, cans or PET bottle are for one time use and are discarded after use and caused environmental pollution and waste of resources.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional press separate storage system for beverage input materials, as described in Korean Patent No. 10 0804593, filed by the applicant of the instant application. The press separate storage system for beverage input materials consists of a body part (10) to selectively separate and reduce the recycling input materials, an input device (20) installed on the upper side of the body part (10) to receive the recycling input materials, a metal sensor (21) installed on the side of the input device (20) to detect metal and non-metal input materials, a side compressing device (30) installed at the bottom of the input device (20) to sense and press both sides of the input materials when the input materials are dropped upright from the input device (20), a sound sensor selector on one side of the side compressing device (30) to detect the falling tone of the upright falling input materials and to determine whether to press or shred the input materials, a sorting part (40) installed at the bottom of the side compressing device (30) to guide the predetermined input materials to be compressed or shredded as determined by the sound sorting sensor to the corresponding storage bins, a recycling storage part (50) installed at the bottom of the sorting part (40) having a non-shredding storage part (51) on one side of the sorting part (40) and a shredding storage part (52) on the other side of the sorting part (40) and a shredding device (60) installed on top of the shredding storage part (52) to shred the compressed input materials dropped upright from the sorting part (40).
Such press separate store system for beverage input materials detects whether the input materials are metallic through its metal sensor (21) on one side of the input device (20) when the input materials are inserted upright at the input device (20) on top of the body part (10) by the user. When the system detects that the inserted input material is metallic, the system controls the side compressing device (30) to perform compression on the inserted input material. That is, since the recycling input materials are inserted upright into the input device (20), the recycling input materials are dropped upright into the side compressing device (30). The sound sorting sensor detects the falling tone that is raised off the floor of side compressing device (30) when the recycling input materials are dropped upright into the side compressing device from the input device (20) and determines whether to compress or to shred the input material. When the inserted input material is determined to be a metal input material based on the detected falling tone, the system controls the side compressing device (30) to perform a compressing operation. If the input material is determined to be a non-metal and plastic (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) input material, the system controls the side compressing device (30) to perform the compressing operation. If the input material is determined to be a glass bottle, the system controls the side compressing device (30) not to perform the compressing operation.
Through such control, the side compressing device (30) performs the compressing operations for metal cans and non-metal PET bottles. After compressing the recycling input materials by compressing the sides of the upright input materials, the side compressing device (30) drops the compressed input materials into the sorting part (40). The sorting part (40) selectively sorts the input materials depending on the material by having it moved toward non-shredding storage bin (51) when the recycling input materials that are pressed upright are metallic and moved toward shredding storage bin (52) when the pressed input materials are non-metal PET bottles. The recycling input materials that are compressed upright falls into the shredding storage bin (52), shredded through shredding device (60) and are loaded in the shredding storage bin (52). The non-metal and glass input materials are dropped and loaded in the non-shredding storage bin (51) without compression, thereby sorting according to the classification of material and completing the selective compression and selective collection processes. In addition, if the items inserted into the input device (20) are determined to be foreign substances (e.g., rock, paper, debris, etc.) other than glass bottles, PET bottles and metal cans, then the system drops and loads them in the non-shredding storage bin (51) without compression.
Such conventional press separate store system for beverage input materials has multiple issues. Firstly, the conventional press separate store system for beverage input materials has a vertical size restriction. The conventional press separate store system must be made smaller than normal adult height so that the user can insert the input materials into the input device to use the system. Since the recycling input materials are inserted upright through the input device (20) on the upper side of the body part (10) and compressed upright so that the both sides of the input materials are pressed by the side compressing device (30), the installation length (vertical length) of the input device (20) and the side compressing device (30) is long and the storage length (vertical length) of the recycling storage part (30) is relatively short. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system that is not restrained by such vertical length limitations.
Secondly, the storage space of the recycling storage part (50) of the conventional press separate store system is also narrow. As a result, the operator of such system have to collect recycling input materials that are loaded in the recycling storage part (50) frequently and such issue of maintaining the system often arises. Also, the sorting part (40) of the conventional press separate store system for beverage input materials is structured to selectively guide to either the sorting part (40) or non-shredding storage bin (51), thereby cans, glass bottles and debris are mixed loaded into the non-shredding storage bin (52). Although glass bottles compared to cans have low utilization rate and human resources must be mobilized to sort these mixed loaded input materials by hand to separate the metal cans from the glass bottles and debris, thereby lowering the recycling efficiency of these system. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system that can collect and sort the input materials into three categories, such as cans, PET bottle and glass bottles, without human intervention.
Thirdly, the shredding device (60) of the conventional press separate store system cannot easily perform the shredding operation on the PET container or input material because of their low weight, leading to longer shredding time and low shredding efficiency. Hence, it would be desirable to have system than readily and easily perform the shredding operation on the PET container or input materials.